Internet, Mobile and Ceremony

That was just my fifth night in The United States. Along with a comfortable fully furnished one-bedroom-kitchen studio apartment at 3 Danforth Road in Boston and a high-speed Laptop, my smart company had also provided me loads of work. And so, I was working on that Friday night, when somebody banged on my door. I knew a few of my colleagues were also putting up at 3 Danforth Road, but none was close to me yet to barge in my place around midnight.

I peeked through the key hole to find Girish standing outside. He was my colleague who was well settled in US for last ten years and just two days back helped me in getting a brand new IPhone 4S under a decent contract.

“I need your IPhone,” he demanded in a requesting tone as soon as I opened the door. He was completely dressed up in a black three-piece but was oddly wearing old slippers under his pants.

“Sure. Going somewhere?” I replied looking at his friend who, though was not wearing a suit, but was decently dressed up. He was his best friend.

His reply perplexed me more than his slippers. “In the middle of the night?”

“Over Skype!” he chuckled.

“Oh…. Okay!” it took me a few seconds to absorb that and I turned to grab my IPhone.

I think out of courtesy he invited me off-hand to join them and out of curiosity I actually did. His apartment was two blocks from 3 Danforth. Along the way, while logging into the Skype, he informed me that his laptop just crashed and all his other friends are out-of-town for the weekend.

On the other side of Skype back in Hyderabad, India, there were around 20 people, all dressed up in traditional south Indian attires. They were waiting for Girish and as we reached his apartment, they called his gorgeous woman. She was wearing a beautiful kanchipuram saree and was all jeweled up elegantly in gold. Her eyes were down and she was shy. Girish was also blushing. It looked just like a real ceremony except for two differences. First there were no raised eye-brows at Girish’s slippers since no one got to look at them and second that Girish has his own ring which he wore himself and she had her own. Then both the families hugged the girl and blessed Girish, throwing rose petals on the screen. We also hugged Girish. It was kind of funny and we were giggling, but it was truly incredible as well. And after sometime, the ceremony was over, Skype was disconnected and Girish who was single a few minutes back was officially engaged.

Girish kept my phone for the night to chat with her then Fiancée. I came to my apartment, completely taken away by the incredible power the combination of mobile and Internet I just witnessed.

I became good friends with Girish after that out-of-the-world ring ceremony and gradually I got to know that 6 months ago Girish first met her in India through a common friend in a party. But since he came back to US, they met daily over Facebook, WhatsApp, Skype, they discovered their interests while playing games like Draw Something, they watched movies together sharing screens, and more importantly, she impressed him a lot singing over Spotify. Recently, he got married in Hyderabad, and all his friends in US, including me obviously, enjoyed the LIVE telecast of their marriage from our offices’ desks and cafeterias over our mobile phone.